The Corridor Pinot Noir
2019
Authentique Wine Cellars
Willamette ValleyOREGON, COMPOSED
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2014
Egon Müller
Mosel
STEEP SLOPES AND PRECISE FRUIT
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The Stressed Yeast Society
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WSET School, London
(in alphabetical order)
London
Lavinia Cremonese
Florence
Lynn de Vries
Amsterdam
Mark Haigh
London
Irene López
Bilbao
Sophie Milnes
London
Miguel Silva
Lisbon
Peder Sortland
Stavanger
Jennifer Thörn
Stockholm
Ben Thuriaux-Alemán
Brighton
Margriet Vande Zande
Beaconsfield
4.9 - 5.0
Stellar+
4.6 - 4.8
Stellar
4.3 - 4.5
Remarkable
4.0 - 4.2
Worthy
3.5 - 3.9
Decent
(Ad-hoc)
Disappointing
Logroño (La Rioja)
Spain
18-23 June 2026
Last Updated 24.10.31
IN SITU
Ben Thuriaux-Alemán
Could an Australian Tempranillo win over Rioja locals? We ran blind tastings at a Logroño expo to find out. We promoted a range of wines as part of a conversation opener which sought to challenge expectations about Tempranillo and encouraged passers-by to explore new wine styles and approaches. It turns out that about a third of those who tried preferred the Australian Tempranillo.
One of the themes for the festival was to drive conversations about places, climates and identity. What better way to do this than to channel the conversations around a sense of place and identity through wine?
It wasn’t easy agreeing on a wine themed event, in the heart of a region with a very strong wine identity. So, to drive a conversation we agreed would have to challenge expectations. To make it even more difficult only two of the group could claim to be fluent in Spanish and a further two of us had enough wine Spanish to hold a conversation on the topic. But maybe this international handicap could be turned into a strength?
Our bold solution was to focus the conversation around the tempranillo grape which forms the backbone of the red wine production in Rioja. We decided to challenge expectations by exploring different expressions of this grape and how it is handled within Rioja (aging, types of oak barrels etc) and outside Spain where there are completely different (potentially “heretical”) approaches to handling Tempranillo.
LAN, the winery sponsoring the festival provided a crate of the festival wine which served as a reference Rioja. We brought some excellent Australian Tempranillo (via the UK because there isn’t any Australian Tempranillo available in Spain) as well as a few examples of Portuguese Tempranillo (where it is known as Aragonez or Tinta Roriz). We also stocked some white Riojas as it was a hot day and we expected some of the visitors would want something fresher.
A couple of days before the event, Alma Carraovejas’ Aiurri winery kindly sponsored this by providing a crate of their Landua cuvée (which could offer some contrast as it uses more French Oak). Chef Juan Carlos Ferrando (from the homonymous restaurant) also provided us with glasses and storage space.
It was 38°C in the shade that day… so the wines were opened and kept in an ice bin and frequently rotated back to the ice bin (Ben and Jennifer are slightly obsessive about serving temperature). However, this created some issues as we started to notice that the tasting notes would evolve significantly with changes in temperature. But that turned into another interesting conversation about preferred serving temperatures and the impact on the wine.
Once we got started it got challenging to keep up with the washing up… luckily there was a drinking fountain nearby and the glasses dried very quickly in the heat.
It turned out that it was more fun than expected to communicate in a variety of languages with passersby in Spanish, broken Spanish (it’s a different language), English, Italian, Norwegian/Swedish and French - this made us focus on the enthusiasm rather than perfect technical descriptions. We focused the engagement with visitors by contrasting the different approaches to the wine and getting them to focus on the different taste profiles and to explore the differences and what it meant to them. The conversations had to be pitched at a range of levels (from people who usually drink beer to people who actually make wine). We either offered to talk through the wine styles or we offered a three-glass blind flight with a conversation about what they had liked afterwards.
We didn’t know what to expect in terms of preferences, but it was interesting that about a third of the Spanish (blind) tasters preferred the style of the Australian tempranillo which is something they had never tried. That suggests a good level of openness in the conversations we created.
Lessons learned:
• We should have agreed tasting notes before we started, and we should have checked these at different temperatures.
• We needed more glasses, way more glasses
• There is no point trying to do this during siesta time - we expected that the afternoon would be a bit dead but were not fully prepared for the quietness of siesta time. On the plus side this allowed us to hunt for food.
• We needed more ice and washing-up facilities for the glasses
• In retrospect… we should probably have included some Joven-style Riojas
LAN D-12
Edición Limitada
2022
Bodegas LAN
Rioja (Alta)This served as the reference classic Crianza Rioja wine with typical wine making and mainly American oak.
The nose was ripe with ripe blackberries and dark cherries.
Dry, medium+ acidity, medium+ firm tannins
On the palate, it had almost jammy black cherries, dark berries and some plum, with grippy ripe tannins well balanced by the acidity with some lactic notes and a medium finish.
This wine was widely available during the Festival and we could direct passersby to local suppliers or to the LAN winery .
Landua
2022
Aiurri
RiojaThis served as the alternative Rioja wine (same region, climate but with blending and use of French Oak).
The nose is blackberries and plums with mild spice notes, vanilla and dried herbs.
Dry, medium+ acidity, medium+ firm tannins
On the palate, it presents firm tannins that provide structure and a M+ linear finish. Full bodied, ripe black cherries, with fresh acid structure. Strong notes of vanilla and slight oxidative notes (dried fruits, nuts)
This is made predominantly with 80% Tempranillo (with minority Grenache and Graciano) with traditional fermentation temperature (25-28C?) and exclusively in French oak for 15 months (unusual for Rioja which typically has American oak). Then blended and aged for a further 5 months in large oak tanks or concrete. Hence less oxidation and with strong tertiary notes from barrel ageing (vanilla, smoke, cedar).
We were able to direct passersby to the Aiurri winery.
Dead End Tempranillo
2022
S.C. Panell
McLaren ValeThis served as the and now for something completely different wine with which to contrast the Riojas.
The nose is all ripe cherries and red fruit with a bit of spice.
Dry, medium+ acidity, M+ ripe tannins.
Palate is medium+ body ripe black cherries – almost (but not quite) jammy, cranberry and clean fruit with medium finish.
This is 100% Tempranillo from McLaren Vale made in stainless steel at lower temperature fermentation with protective wine making techniques (low oxygen contact) to preserve fruit purity and intensity. The fruit is well balanced with the acidity and it has a very clean structure. In contrast to the Riojas what was noticeable is that there were few tertiary notes (not oxidation) and not much oak (only 9 months in 500l barrels 80% of which are over 10 years old) so very little vanilla or coconut. Tannins are much softer which made it approachable.
Best served a little chilled.
There was no way to encourage local passersby to source this… but we did encourage a few international tourists to explore this after their trip.
Tinta Roriz
2019
Quinta do Crasto
Douro D.O.C.This served as the and that’s how they make it across the border in the Douro wine with which to contrast the Riojas.
The nose is all blackberries and plum with some cocoa notes and a bit of spice.
Dry, medium+ acidity, M+ structured tannins.
Palate is medium+ body ripe dark berries – chocolate and liquorice, vanilla and a bit of leather.
This spends 18 months in New French oak barrels which is what drives the vanilla and potentially the chocolate and liquorice (but we weren’t able to get any details on barrel toasting to check this was mainly the barrels).
- BT-A